Category Archives: Deaths in custody

AMA calls for governments to implement royal commission recommendations on Aboriginal deaths in custody

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Exclusive: Medical experts also reiterate calls to raise age of criminal responsibility, saying detention facilities have ‘deeply adverse’ affects on children

The Australian Medical Association is calling on governments to divert people away from incarceration and implement the recommendations of the 1991 Aboriginal deaths in custody royal commission.

The AMA has also reiterated its call for states and territories to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14, particularly due to the disproportionate impact on Indigenous people.

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Brisbane watch house officer tells inquest she did not check if Aunty Sherry Tilberoo was breathing

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Debra Haigh tells hearing she now understands she should have stood in front of cell for longer and used a torch to look for movement

A Brisbane watch house officer who was suspended after the death of First Nations woman Shiralee Tilberoo has admitted during an inquest that she did not check whether she was breathing or shine a torch into the darkened cell on nine occasions.

The Birri Gubba woman – also known as Aunty Sherry – died of a brain aneurysm in Brisbane City watch house in the early hours of the morning on 10 September 2020.

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Deputy commissioner highly critical of botched arrest of Kumanjayi Walker, inquest hears

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Murray Smalpage tells coroner he is ‘struggling to find a reason’ for deviation from arrest plan on day Warlpiri teen was killed by Zachary Rolfe

The Northern Territory police’s second-highest serving officer has told an inquest he is “struggling to find a reason why” there was such a deviation from the “detailed” plan to arrest Warlpiri teenager Kumanjayi Walker on the day he was shot and killed by Constable Zachary Rolfe.

Walker, 19, was shot dead by Rolfe during a botched arrest in the remote Northern Territory community of Yuendumu in 2019. Rolfe was cleared of all criminal charges in relation to the shooting.

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Indigenous prisoner spent less than an hour in medical unit after emergency, Victorian coroner told

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Inquest hears Michael Suckling struggled with drug addiction, back pain, mobility issues and significant weight gain in prison

A First Nations man who died in a Melbourne prison was the subject of a “code black” medical emergency two days earlier, but spent less than an hour in a healthcare unit before being returned to his cell, an inquest has heard.

Michael Suckling, 41, died on 7 March 2021 at Ravenhall Correctional Centre in Melbourne’s west from an enlarged heart.

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‘Complete, unmitigated disaster’: inquest into Veronica Nelson’s death urges overhaul of ‘discriminatory’ Victorian bail laws

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Coroner refers prison health contractor to Director of Public Prosecutions over death in custody

A Victorian coroner has declared the state’s controversial bail laws discriminatory and a “complete, unmitigated disaster”, using landmark findings into the 2020 death in custody of First Nations woman Veronica Nelson to recommend urgent reforms.

Coroner Simon McGregor on Monday handed down the highly anticipated findings into the death of Nelson, a 37-year-old Gunditjmara, Dja Dja Wurrung, Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta woman who was in prison after being arrested for shoplifting and refused bail.

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‘People before profits’: Victoria to ditch private health providers in women’s prisons

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Corrections minister Enver Erdogan to confirm transition to public services, in move welcomed by Indigenous advocates

The Victorian government will take over health care across women’s prisons across the state, in a move described as “a prioritisation of people before profits” by a respected Aboriginal leader.

The state’s corrections minister, Enver Erdogan, will on Friday confirm the contract for providing primary health services at Tarrengower Prison and the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre will transition from private firm Correct Care Australasia (CCA) to Dhelkaya (Castlemaine) Health and Western Health, respectively, on 1 July.

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Veronica Nelson’s partner launches lawsuit against Victorian government over death in custody

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Percy Lovett alleges a breach of human rights in a civil claim filed in state’s supreme court

Veronica Nelson’s long-term partner has launched a wrongful death lawsuit against the state of Victoria and four others, alleging her death in custody breached human rights.

The Indigenous woman, 37, was found dead in her cell at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in January 2020 after making repeated calls for help, an inquest has heard.

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Advocates call for urgent action after two ‘incredibly tragic’ Aboriginal deaths in custody

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Linda Burney says rates of Indigenous incarceration and deaths in custody 30 years after royal commission are a ‘national shame’

Advocates say the “heartbreaking” deaths of two Aboriginal people in custody within days of each other in Western Australia over Christmas should jolt state and federal governments into urgent action.

A 41-year-old First Nations woman died in a Perth hospital on Christmas Eve after suffering a “medical episode” in Wandoo rehabilitation prison 13 days earlier.

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Zachary Rolfe bragged about injuring innocent man, Kumanjayi Walker inquest told

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‘Treated him to the old illegal shoulder charge,’ Northern Territory police officer wrote in text message, inquiry hears

A Northern Territory police officer who fatally shot Kumanjayi Walker bragged about injuring a man wrongly suspected of escaping custody, an inquest has heard.

Walker, 19, died after Constable Zachary Rolfe shot him three times during a botched arrest in Yuendumu, north-west of Alice Springs, on 9 November 2019.

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‘Don’t run from police’: Zachary Rolfe boasted to mother about injuring suspect, inquest told

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NT inquiry into death of Kumanjayi Walker in 2019 hears Rolfe separately bragged to paramedic he ‘mashed some dude’s face against a wall’

A Northern Territory police officer who shot and killed Kumanjayi Walker bragged to his mother about injuring another man wrongly suspected of escaping custody, an inquest has heard.

Kumanjayi Walker, 19, died after Const Zachary Rolfe shot him three times during a botched arrest in Yuendumu, north-west of Alice Springs, in November 2019.

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Zachary Rolfe ‘humiliated’ Indigenous teen in violent arrest before Walker shooting, inquest told

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Video from Rolfe’s body-worn camera shows him approach wheelie bin with 14-year-old hiding inside before slamming lid and pulling bin to ground

The Northern Territory police officer who shot and killed Kumanjayi Walker was involved in an earlier arrest of another Indigenous youth that was allegedly violent and humiliating, an inquest has been told.

The inquiry into the death of 19-year-old Walker – who was shot during a bungled arrest in Yuendumu in 2019 – was played a video on Tuesday of Const Zachary Rolfe detaining a 14-year-old boy in 2018.

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Kumanjayi Walker inquest: senior NT constable justifies attending ‘drinks’ at Zachary Rolfe’s house after shooting

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Senior Constable Shane McCormack says he went to social gathering two days after Rolfe killed Walker because he was concerned for his welfare

A senior Northern Territory police officer has told an inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker that he attended a gathering at the house of the officer who shot the Warlpiri teenager because he was concerned about his welfare.

Constable Zachary Rolfe shot 19-year-old Walker three times during an attempted arrest in Yuendumu, north-west of Alice Springs, in November 2019. Rolfe was found not guilty of murder and two alternative charges after a six-week trial earlier this year.

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Indigenous man’s death in Victorian custody the second in a month

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Family of 38-year-old Gunditjmara and Wiradjuri man Clinton Austin say he was let down by police and justice systems

An Aboriginal prisoner in central Victoria has become the second Indigenous person to die in custody in the state in a matter of weeks.

Clinton Austin, a 38-year-old Gunditjmara and Wiradjuri man, died at Loddon prison near Castlemaine in Victoria on Sunday. Austin’s family has said they are devastated by his death.

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Indigenous death in NSW jail from ear infection ‘the result of systemic failures’: coroner

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Douglas ‘Mootijah’ Shillingsworth’s ear problems would have been picked up by proper procedures, coroner Joan Baptie finds

The death of an Aboriginal man from an ear infection while in custody was preventable and due to failures in the New South Wales justice system, a coroner has found.

Douglas “Mootijah” Shillingsworth, a Budjiti and Murrawarri man, died of a middle ear infection, known as otitis media, at the age of 44 on 15 February 2018 while incarcerated at the Silverwater prison in Sydney.

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Indigenous woman’s screams for help before her death were ‘excruciating’, fellow inmate tells inquest

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Veronica Nelson died in a Melbourne jail in early 2020 and a woman who was in a nearby cell has told an inquest authorities ‘let her die’

Prison staff allegedly left Indigenous woman Veronica Nelson to die in her cell after she screamed for help for hours, a former inmate has told an inquest.

Aboriginal woman Kylie Bastin was in a cell close to Nelson’s at Melbourne’s Dame Phyllis Frost Centre on the evening of 1 January 2020.

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Sheku Bayoh inquiry must be ‘watershed moment’, say campaigners

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Hearings to examine 2015 death in custody in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, come after intense pressure from family

The public inquiry into the death in police custody of Sheku Bayoh, which starts taking evidence this week, must be a “watershed moment” with the potential to prompt a wider dialogue about racism in Scotland, campaigners have said.

The hearings begin almost exactly seven years since the father-of-two died after being restrained by officers in Kirkcaldy, Fife, on 3 May 2015, and marks the first major public examination of institutional racism in Scotland since the Black Lives Matter movement galvanised around the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

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WA coroner says police failed to monitor breathing of Aboriginal woman pinned to the ground

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It was ‘incomprehensible’ that a police internal investigation into Cherdeena Wynne’s restraint found it was in line with policy and procedures, coroner finds

A Western Australian coroner has criticised police offices for their “woefully inadequate” monitoring of an Aboriginal woman’s breathing after she was pinned to the ground and lost consciousness before being allowed to sit up.

Cherdeena Wynne, a 26-year-old Noongar Yamatji woman, died in hospital five days after she was pinned in a prone position by police officers, one of whom had his knee on her shoulder blades and leg across her upper back for almost two minutes.

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Veronica Nelson made repeated calls for help before her death in custody, inquest hears

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Melbourne coroner’s court hears audio of the 37-year-old Yorta Yorta woman screaming in pain in her prison cell

Yorta Yorta woman Veronica Marie Nelson made repeated calls for assistance in the hours before she was found dead in a maximum security prison cell, a coronial inquest has heard.

The 37-year-old, who also has Gunditjmara, Dja Dja Wurrung and Wiradjuri heritage, died at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre on 2 January 2020, four days after being arrested because she had failed to attend a sentencing hearing for a shoplifting offence.

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Decriminalisation of public drunkenness delayed by Victorian government

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Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service ‘disappointed’ that official repeal will not occur in November

Victoria will delay repealing public drunkenness as a crime, in a move that has triggered the state’s Indigenous legal service to urge the state government to prioritise the “overdue reform”.

The offence was to be officially repealed in November, but Guardian Australia understands the decriminalisation of public drunkenness may not take effect until 2023 – more than five years after the death of 55-year-old Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day.

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The Australian’s coverage of Zachary Rolfe verdict condemned as ‘a national disgrace’

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News Corp paper published multiple negative stories about Kumanjayi Walker and body camera footage from night he was killed

Several high-profile Indigenous journalists have condemned the Australian newspaper’s coverage as unethical, victim-blaming and insensitive following the acquittal of Northern Territory police officer Zachary Rolfe in relation to the shooting death of 19-year-old Kumanjayi Walker.

A jury acquitted Rolfe of murder and related charges on Friday over the 2019 shooting of Walker in Yuendumu. The court heard Walker was shot three times, with Rolfe arguing he acted to protect his and his partner’s safety.

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